The comments made by Congress party vice-president Rahul Gandhi at the Sunday evening’s public meeting at Guntur against YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy on the special category status to Andhra Pradesh are totally unwarranted, political analysts who participated in television debates on Monday observed.

First of all, it was wrong on the part of Rahul Gandhi to equate Jagan with Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu on not raising the issue of special category status with the Centre and saying that both the leaders were afraid of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

While Naidu had never demanded special category status to AP and happily accepted the special financial package instead, Jagan has been fighting for the special category status right from the beginning.

Even during his meeting with Narendra Modi, Jagan raised the issue and requested him to reconsider his decision.

It has nothing to do with the support extended to the BJP’s presidential candidate, as Jagan only wanted that there was no point in having a contest for the Presidential polls when the NDA has the majority.

“Even a senior leader like Sharad Yadav made allegations against Jagan on the latter’s meeting with Modi without knowing the facts.

None of these leaders had any knowledge about the AP politics and the ground realities in the state.

It is unfortunate that Rahul Gandhi had not taken the name of late Y S Rajasekhar Reddy even once, though it was YSR who was responsible for the victory of the Congress in the state and at the Centre twice in 2004 and 2009,” YSRC spokesman Ambati Rambabu said.